Thursday 15th Oct

I'm UTUPing, as I believe is TF, but there is a suggestion that we'll be tagging on to Norman's session. If anyone else would like to turn up and swell the "NO" vote number/s, they will be very welcome.

Aldi Winter Runing Kit

Worth a look – in store this Thursday

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/Offers_week42Thursday09.htm

NLN

Autumn in Lakeland

A very early get up on Saturday meant leaving home well before sunrise to arrive in the village of Rosthwaite in the Borrowdale valley for an 8.30 start.  This is an event we’ve enjoyed several times before usually in good weather, but nothing quite so special as the clear azure skies on offer on this occasion.  The route was originally planned by the late Boyd Millen the first of only three to have completed a double – yes DOUBLE – Bob Graham round.   It’s now down to his widow Lillian, herself a BG completer to put the show on the road, which she does in great style and with the help of the Morcambe Bay and Bowland LDWA group.

Although perfect conditions on the day, heavy rain overnight meant there was a lot of water on the ground making it tricky in many places.  FSS and I completed the 21 mile route with just under 5,000ft of climbing in 5hrs 9mins.  I think the pictures taken by FSS say it all – a fabulous day in the hills.

 

 

The mighty Causey Pike with Little Town at its feet (click on image to get scale of it)

Leaving Rosthwaite

Looking back to Rosthwaite climbing the steep track up to Dock Tarn

Dock Tarn

 

 

Watendlath

NLN

Mid Lancs XC, Kendal

As the club is giving preference to this league, I thought I may as well have a go. I'd been out with East Lancs LDWA on Wednesday for a little 16 mile jaunt around Belmont, Egerton, Rivington and Winter Hill so Thursday nights session comprised a whole 20 minutes so I could get back before J went off to work. Managed to arrange a lift with Tony H which was a good job as without me he would have been hunting round the centre of Kendal for the venue (and from hearing phone calls, he wouldn't have been the only one!). The course was at the Westmorland Showground just off the South Lakes turn off from the M6. We arrived in time to cheer on the juniors and four ladies representing Horwich. The course itself was pretty dry and a trail shoe would have been perfect. An easy choice of Walshes over spikes for me. As usual, I was the last Horwich man, but I seem to be getting closer to the rest - probably the course suited me.

I've got a TT match next Thursday so as captain I'd better turn up - we're not doing bad at the moment, a point adrift of the leaders, but we've had a blank week which is worth up to 9 points.

No XC next Saturday but may do the Chorley 4 Peaks Plus 3 Lads LDWA walk (20 miles).

Those Were The Days

In August 1991 Norman and I ran the Borrowdale Fell Race together. The purpose of his entry was to drag me round as quickly as possible. I was 56 and Norman about 54.

Approaching Styhead check point.

 

At the finish.

The things that that man will do for people!

Saturday run

Thanks to all for your continued support of my Snowdonia training which is showing progress week by week.

As no roadies are available to run next Saturday, due to diary clashes, I have decided to bring the Saturday run forward to Friday so if anyone is available and wants a long road run they will be most welcome. Intention is to do a warm up lap as last weekend and then do the Bolton 40 lap plus the Belmont triangles which should give me about 23 miles. This would give plenty of opportunity to "pick and mix" for any distance from 14 to 23. If anyone can join me I will be at the lower barn at 8 30 (or any other time by negotiation). If there are no confirmations I'll go straight on at Rivington Green after the warm up.

Pendle preview

I have no clashes for the week before Pendle and so am available for a serious recce. Will set aside unlimited time

Tour of Pendle (21st Nov 2009)

Looks like a great day out TF.   There’s just so much to do isn’t there?  My next outing with the Sat Squad will be 7th November and looking forward to seeing everyone who’s not at the Joss dinner then.   I feel my membership of the Squad is in danger of downgrading to ‘Associate’ status.  In between then and now we’ve got our annual visit to the mountains of Mallorca, the Joss Dinner and on the 14th we’re in Nant Peris for the weekend of the Rucksack Club dinner.

Yesterday was Autumn in Lakeland – report and piccies to follow, glorious weather.  Keeping up to date by reading your accounts of what you’ve been up to – trust your road outing was similarly blessed with sunshine.

NLN

Tour of Pendle (21st Nov 2009)

I know this is a bit of a way off, but tentative discussions have indicated that TF, YJ and Matt are up for this one. However, TF and Matt have expressed a wish to hone their route choice with a recce.

Other wfdbwgua'ers have suggested 'away days' and I wonder whether it would be possible to combine the two with the added potential for our 2 fledgling navigators to test out their newly learned skills (no pressure girls!). Because of Cross Country and Haircut commitments the only Saturday I could make would be the 14th Nov. Handy as this is one week before the race.

The tricky bits as far as the race is concerned are
1) locating the turn off for the trod to check point 2
2) locating the turn off for the trod to check point 5
3) locating the best line for check point 9
3) Locating the best line for check point 11

The map of the race route is located here http://www.clayton-le-moors-harriers.co.uk/uploads/Archives/Tour/TOPendle_Map.pdf

I don't think we need to recce all of it, so my initial thoughts would be to do the following

1) Follow race route from start to turn off for trod to CP2, (build cairn),
2) Stay on main track and follow until turn off for CP5 (build cairn)
3) Follow race route to turn off for CP9 (build cairn)
4) Follow race route to finish

By my reckoning this gives us nearly 12m and most of the climbs except the one from CP3. Outside guess of 3.5hrs? My time for the full route last year was 4hr37mins, having got through the 2hr cut-off at CP4. I appreciate that some of you may be on tighter dealines and therefore a shorter route would be to go from the start to CP4, and then following race route to CP5 etc, thus effectively doing the 2nd half of the race. At a guess about 9m and do-able (is that a word?) in 2.5hrs? If we arranged to be in Barley for a start some time between 8.30 and 9.00am we could be done by lunchtime. I think car-sharing would be extremely sensible.

Any thoughts?

TF

ps On an important financial note pre-entry is £5 but on the day it's £10 - quite a mark-up. I personally will be pre-entering!!

Saturday Road

Minor changes on my part, in that I'll run from home and meet you Millstone-ish, and I'll not be doing the final loop, due to a lunch invitation.

Hope both your knees are OK, Matt, your old one and presumably your younger one.

Interesting stats from last Saturday YJ, although the Anglezarke loop seemed longer than that to me. No doubt that was because I faded on the climbs. As long as the old knee is ok(I've had a little reaction) I'm interested in doing the road again on Saturday to see if I can improve a bit.

This Saturday

UTUP for me to fell run, or road run, or to do some of both.

Midweek kanter

Postponing my midweek rerun of Saturday's outing proved to be a good move. After Tuesday's monsoon Wednesday's calm, dry and cool weather was perfect for running, although it did bring out the hordes to Rivington, forcing a start to be made from the main drive and not the Lower Barn car park, making the route slightly longer.

The conditions would play some part in the improved pace though more can be attributed to the previous two circuits of the Bolton 40 course.

Pace today was 9 mins 33 secs per mile for 18.5 miles compared to last week's midweek run at 9.54 for 14 miles.

Just for the record, Belmont to Horden Stoop took 13 mins - that was 53 seconds faster than Saturday without my pacer!

Thursday 8th and Saturday 10th

Ankle niggle permitting, I'll be UTUPing both days.

Winter Hill Road Circuit

As we made Horden Stoops we could see the approaching weather, a vast wall of clag, at this point stretching from somewhere over Chorley to a lot further south. I did forlornly hope we'd get back to the Lower Barn without getting wet, but when you're contending with 40mph winds it was a very forlorn hope. Started to feel the first drops at Ammunition corner.

YJ will post the stats, but the initial impression was that we completed the circuit about a minute slower than a similar outing last year. Given the battle up the last climb, I was 'well chuffed' with that, especially as this was the longest road run I'd done this year. Not sure I'd have managed it on my own, so I have the charming company to thank for that (YJ, JtE, Matt & EtU).

I'll be out again on Saturday for a repeat performance.

TF

Sat Stats

Now that the change in the weather to torrential rain has brought a chance to be indoors for a while I can provide the statistics for Saturday's road run. For those who were not with us the squad comprised TF, JtE, Matt, EtU and YJ.

The single lap measures 14.25 miles car to car; plus the Anglezarke loop pushed it up to 18.25 to the Lower Barn; and plodding on to Riv and Blackrod school and back edged the miles to over 20.

Timewise we were amazingly similar to last year's equivalent run. We were back at Rivington Green the first time within 11 seconds of last year (despite the strong Westerly on Saturday) and the Anglezarke loop, with the team now down to EtU, Matt and YJ, was better than my solo run last year by 6 mins. Total climb was 1,569 ft for the single lap and 2,355 ft for the full distance. Pace over 20 miles was 10.57 and as I slowed when left on my own the pace for the full group would be about 10.50.

Times were 2.36 for the single lap; 3.23 for 18 miles and 3.40 for 20 miles.

Plans for a rerun have been shelved for a better day, possibly tomorrow if body and time permit. Training 68 miles in 7 days has finally taken its toll so as today's energy levels are low plans for the next few days are fluid (and I don't mean beer) aIthough I shall definitely be at the UTUP on Saturday, ready for more tarmac.

Last Saturday

Where's the full report YJ?

Rucksack Navigational Challenge

With winds of 50mph on Kinder, the challenge was to stay upright – spectacular views from the plateau of the downfall blowing up into the air.  Early thoughts of putting into practice last week’s instruction were soon abandoned as FSS and I battled the elements to find the controls.  Having bagged three from six I managed to navigate solo back to the warmth of the organiser’s campervan for a nice cup of tea, leaving FSS to capture the last three.  Unfortunately (for those still on the course) my ‘bail out’ coincided with the heaviest rain of the day and no visibility on the tops.  FSS managed one from three of the remaining controls, getting to within half a mile of the furthest before turning back, unable to stand. 

I was out for about 3.5hours and covered 8.67 miles!  Different!  How did you Roadies get on, what were conditions like in our own backyard?

NLN

Downhills and flexibility
Apologies for not posting earlier. On Monday night it did cross my mind as to the non-appearance of Ed. More than that, I did make the comment to the others up there in the mist. I believe Rammy was also expecting you.
As always I was panicking that I would not get there on time. I chose to park at the usual Thursday night spot at about 5.45 thinking that 20 minutes to Wilderswood and 25 minutes to the Stump would be sufficient so I would arrive not too drained. Picking up the shortcut which brings you out to the right of the mast road helped and I was able to a mix of jog/walk to the mast as one of the earliest arrivals. So like me to be so well prepared and arrive in good time, isn't it Ed?
Colin set off first so that there would be someone at the finish who knew who was who as the young lady (Diane) who'd driven off to be at the finish didn't know most of us. I was off next, soon to be caught by Mark, Tony, young Mr Fowler from Preston and Pete R as we headed off towards the Pike, pulling some back as we got a bit of climb towards the Pike where Dougie was ensuring we touched the Tower.
Eventually all but Michelle overhauled me but I think my time of 29:38 may have been a PB, certainly I should have had the biggest improvement prize had there been one as I think last year I included an initial loop around the mast to start all over again.
Ed, I'm surprised Dougie had gone and you didn't catch up to Michelle (who had started after me). We were in the RMI Car Park for quite a while as the prizegiving took some time, such were the volume of prizes. Definitely a race where you had to be inittowinnit - even for the poorest descender in the club like me!
Flexibility - From Nov 1st, I shall be more flexible with my running although my diary is already filling up, but if anyone would like a good long daytime run, let me know.
Changing sport, my TT has had its ups and downs. I represented the region at CSSC games and managed to lose all 13 matches, only winning one game. I then followed up the day and half of TT with a hilly 10k in 49:30. This poor TT performance has been balanced by the new Bolton League season where I've managed to win 8 out of 9 matches so far, with my only loss very narrow to a player I've not yet managed to beat in the past three years - it all depends what level you play at!
And congratulations to YJ. Yes a bit remiss of Ed not to mention at the Quarterly Do.

Belated Congratulations

I learned last night that on the 17th September our good friend YJ became 70 years old. I admonished his little brother for not letting us know at the appropriat time.

Congratulations and very best wishes YJ from all of us.

Well done to YJ for his half-marathon performance. It seems that expletives were not the only thing that were flying round Macclesfield! To run 8 minute miles was tremendous. I shall be Utuping on Saturday, hoping that I can keep him within sight.